Tuesday, October 17, 2006

Stepping up its battle against online music piracy, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry announced thousands of new lawsuits against those it suspects of illegal file-sharing.

The recording industry group has filed 8000 new lawsuits in 17 countries, bringing the total number of suits it has filed outside the U.S. to 13,000, the IFPI announced today. That's on top of about 18,000 lawsuits already filed in the U.S., said Alex Jacob, an IFPI spokesman in London.

Of the cases outside the U.S., about 2300 people have settled with the IFPI rather than face fines, with the average settlement at $3028, the IFPI said.

Visitors to the former Web site of Grokster, which shut down last year after losing a case in front of the U.S. Supreme Court., now see a warning that their IP address has been logged. "Don't think you can't get caught. You are not anonymous," the Web site says.